


One More Tomorrow

by halfd3af



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Amputation, Amputee, Asexuality, Dead People, Death, Depression, F/M, Fluff, Hugs, Self Esteem Issues, Slow Burn, cursing, more characters to be included, self hatred
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 00:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9630890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfd3af/pseuds/halfd3af
Summary: Nick Valentine is a character in Fallout 4 well-known for his struggle with his identity. I wanted to create a fanfiction where he helps someone else through their own identity crisis. The Vault Dweller, known as Andie Fitzgerald in this story, becoming an amputee is my chosen example. These events take place after the destruction of the Institute. (I haven't written a long fanfiction in a while, so I hope I can give my story justice.)





	1. It Happened One Night

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled angrily overhead as I chased after my detective companion, Nick Valentine, through the dark and twisting alleyways. I struggled to maintain my footing, for the pavement was slick with rain that poured down in waves from the dark storm clouds. A hail of bullets dented the brick wall to my right as our pursuers grew near. Their yelling cut through the sound of the pouring rain, and I tried to focus my attention on Nick's coat flapping furiously in the fierce wind.  
  
There was no practical chance of us winning this fight. Our ammo had been thoroughly spent that morning and afternoon while storming the base of Eddie Winter, a centuries old enemy of Nick's. After his heated standoff with Winter, I had quietly followed Nick outside of the bunker through the carnage of dead raiders.  
  
After he lead me to the spot where his fiancé was murdered, he had admitted, "Now Eddie's as dead as Jenny and Nick. And I... I'm at a loss". I had assured him that no matter if he was the "old Nick" or not, I still considered him my closest friend. His words of gratitude still rang clearly in my head: "Without you, Eddie'd still be at large. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to thank you for that".  
  
My reminiscing was cut short as my foot set off a mine, triggering a violent explosion. My body was thrown against a wall, and the back of my head slammed against it so hard that I thought my skull had broken. After a few seconds of blinking away the black spots swarming my vision, I realized that my right leg below the knee was a bloody mess. The sight of my wounded leg and the high amounts of adrenaline in my system seemed to banish any feelings of pain and comprehension.  
  
My attention slowly began to accommodate the hand that was grasping and shaking my shoulder. I struggled to distinguish the outline of Nick kneeling in front of me, for his figure seemed to blend into the rain falling around him. My ears were ringing from the explosion, and all of the words he was shouting into my face were meaningless in the high-pitched shrill.  
  
The dull sound of gunshots rang out above me, and I watched as Nick's figure swiftly collided with another against a wall. The sight of breaking bone was unmistakable as a bolt of lightning illuminated the sky, and I glimpsed a trail of blood painted on the wall where the man previously stood. I rested my head against the wall behind me and closed my eyes, and I pondered on how nice sleep would feel.  
  
Thunder preceded the frantic yell, "Stay with me, kid!", of my normally calm and soft-spoken friend. He had returned to my side once more, for I felt his arms slide underneath my back and legs. My head rested on his shoulder, and I thought I heard him cursing under his breath. I slowly faded out of conscious as he raced towards Diamond City, and the last thing I heard was him yelling for them to "open up the damn gate".


	2. The Big Sleep

I had no idea how much time had passed when I felt a hand softly rubbing my shoulder. "Hey, you need to wake up. Doctor Sun said you gotta eat, to keep up your strength." My eyes were greeted by a view of a darkened room, and I slowly managed to discern the outline of Piper's iconic hat. I opened my mouth to speak but the reporter cut me off, and she started relaying all the thoughts her brain could come up with. "You _cannot_ imagine how unreal everything looked the other day. 'Our city's private eye enters the gates, in the middle of a raging storm, with the blood and rain soaked savior of the Commonwealth held in his arms'. It was like Death himself had walked right into our little city, showing off one of his newest victims. Or maybe you'd say he appeared as a guardian angel, because damn, he stuck by your side like a freakin' shadow once he got the doctor. He was holding your hand throughout the entire operation. I don't blame him for that, because we were all worried you weren't gonna make it and-" her words becoming white noise after she uttered the word, "operation".  


I sat there pondering what she could have meant. The memory of my wounded leg in the rain resurfaced, and I felt my heart rate begin to skyrocket. My eyes were now adjusted to the darkness of the room, and I noticed numerous blankets draped across my body. I hesitantly lifted them off me, and I was rewarded with the sorry sight of my right leg. It ended in a bandaged stump just below my knee, and the impact of no longer having a right foot hit me like a train.  
  
My breath caught in my throat as I sat there losing my grip on my emotions. _This can't be happening. It has to be some sort of cruel joke. What's going to happen now?_ I didn't notice the tears creeping down my cheeks until I felt Piper wiping them away with a cloth. She closed her fingers tightly around my left hand and whispered gently, "Oh come on Blue, you'll turn out fine". I think scathingly to myself _You don't know that. You're not going through this, I am._  
  
I buried my distressed and hopeless feelings under the façade that her words had comforted me. After I had wiped up the remnants of my tears, she handed me a bowl of Takahashi's memorable noodle soup. When I l tilted my head forward to bring the spoon to my lips, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my skull. "Crap, I forgot to mention that you can't move your head for a bit", Piper chips in, "Doc says you have a concussion, so that's why it's pitch black in here- your eyes would be hurting from the light".  
  
I finish my soup quietly and I request that Piper leave so I could go back to sleep. She fulfills my wish by exiting the room, and she promises to stop by in the morning. When the door closed shut, I was left staring at the darkness that tainted the room. I don't remember sleeping well that night.

  
  


I expected to see Nick as soon as I woke up from surgery. His distinctive yellow eyes and faded trench coat remained out of sight for days, and I was left with only the visits of concerned residents. I lay there in boredom most days, as I desperately wanted to make progress on adjusting to my missing foot. But Doctor Sun prevented me from doing so, saying that I "needed to rest my leg a little longer". He said that the bone needed more time to completely heal from the surgery. But one evening, I gladly welcomed the sight of Deacon striding into the room.  
  
He was predictably wearing a different disguise from the last one I saw, and his eyes remained unsurprisingly concealed behind his favorite shades. I almost let out a sigh of relief when he didn't go into a "You're gonna be fine" speech. He told me that he couldn't stay long, for he had some urgent errands to wrap up for the Railroad. The mass exodus of synths had been more than the group were currently capable of handling, but they were no less willingly to work their damn hardest transporting them out of the Commonwealth.  
  
Despite this, he had managed to find time in his day to inform me that Tinker Tom planned to build me a prosthetic. It was to be "a gift of thanks for all that you've done for the cause". When he was lifting up my legs to record measurements, I saw that he was trying his hardest to be as gentle as he could.  
  
He left soon after, and as I lay there in the slowly darkening room as the sun set over the city, my thoughts drifted to Shaun. I was going to need someone to tell him what had happened to me, for who knew how long it would be before I'd visit Sanctuary again. _I really need to spend some time with him. He's such a great kid..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine Stimpaks and such would help cut the recovery period for concussions and amputations in half. Also, I'm not an amputee myself, so feel free to correct me on certain things. This chapter was a nuisance for me to write, and I promise the next chapter is gonna be real good. >:D (Also, the names of all my chapters are based on movies I've watched in film class)


	3. The Brave One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nate's name is Robert in my story. I hope you enjoy this chapter, for I had a lot of fun writing it!

"He's perfect." I whisper softly to my husband, whose frame is leaning over my shoulder to gaze upon our newborn son. The soft fluorescent lighting illuminates his peaceful state as he sleeps soundly in my arms, and I can't contain the love for him that's growing by the minute. 

"What do you want to name him?", Robert inquires after a few moments of thoughtful silence. After a minute of pondering, I reply with, "Shaun... it just sounds.. nice". He smiles and replies with, "That's a great name. I can't wait to see what he'll do when he grows-", but Robert was interrupted by the door to the hospital room slamming open. 

The sound startled Shaun awake, and he quickly began to wail. Conrad Kellogg stepped into the radiant white room from the shadows of the hallway, and a unnerving tension shrouded the atmosphere as a result of his presence. 

Robert didn't hesitate as he moved to shield Shaun and I, and I heard several bullets find their mark in his back. Our eyes connected for a brief second, and I saw that they were full of unwavering love. But Kellogg had approached the bed in those in seconds, grabbing and throwing Robert to the ground. He fired a single shot into his head and the aftermath was blood splattering upon the floor. A scream was trying to unfurl from my frozen body as Kellogg snatched a shrieking Shaun from my grasp, and I was soon left in the company of my husband's corpse. 

The scene transforms, and I'm standing in front of my dying son, now an old man and cancer-ridden. "You've doomed humanity, you know?" he spat, barely finishing the sentence before he coughs roughly into his hand. When he pulls it away, drops of blood glisten on his palm under the incandescent lighting.

My rebuttal is a softly spoken, "I didn't want it to end like this, Shaun. I'm not a monster". "If that's what you'll tell yourself so you can sleep at night, so be it", he sneers. I hear the sound of crumpling paper, and I look down to see a tattered letter in my hands. The fragile note has the last words of Liam Binet inscribed onto it.

_My father is dead. Everyone I loved or cared about was vaporized or lost in this barren irradiated shithole. Because of you._

_I used to feel sorry for you. You lost your son. You missed out on every moment of his life. Now I see it's only what you deserved._

_I cannot live with myself. Due to my stupid trust in you I've destroyed humanity's best hope for the future. If there's any fairness in this world you'll never get a good night's sleep in what remains of your hopefully short, miserable life._

I glance up from the seething words scribbled hastily upon the paper, and I find myself in the Railroad's headquarters underneath the Old North Church. Liam's body laid upon an operating table of Carrington's, and members of the organization stood around silently in vigil. I can't stomach standing there while knowing how Liam truly felt, and I turn around to leave the underground base. 

But my wrist is unexpectedly ensnared by something cold, followed by the whispering, "What makes you any different than Kellogg?". I whip my head around to see Liam, his corpse reanimated and kneeling on the ground. "You're the reason my father is dead. It's all your fault!", He yells. The image of Shaun flashes into my mind, and I cannot help but cry as his voice intermingles with Liam's as they repeatedly scream, "It's all your fault!". 

I feel the tears streaming down my cheeks as I choke out, "There wasn't any other way!". As I continue to stand there frozen, trapped in their accusatory words, other voices begin to join in. I watch as dozens and dozens of Institute-emblazoned corpses emerge from the ground around my feet. The raw hands of the dead reached towards me, moaning in unison, "It's all your fault!". They grasp, pull, and claw at my legs until I lose my balance. A scream finally rips from my throat as I'm submerged under their writhing bodies. 

But instead of being overwhelmed with the smell of rotting flesh, I can distinguish only the smell of cigarette smoke. Soft-spoken words of comfort pierce the continuous caterwauling of the dead, and I'm pulled out of the bodies into the world of the living.

  
  


I awaken with a shaky breath and the sensation of my fingernails lacerating worn fabric. The recipient of these lacerations was unfazed, for I continued to feel a gentle hand rubbing the area between my shoulder blades. As I turn my head to the left, I see a familiar gaping hole in synthetic skin that reveals countless wires and metallic parts. I let out a shuddering sigh as I say, "I-I'm sorry about your coat". I can feel tears making their way down my cheeks yet again as I feebly smooth out the claw marks I must have left. 

"I'm s-such a monster. I just wanted to find.... and now I... I'm responsible for _so_ many deaths, including the death of....", I sob, fighting against the temptation to speak my son's name aloud, for I knew if I did, I'd lose the last bit of control on my emotions.

"Well, the Commonwealth's 'boogeyman' has been defeated, and you're the reason that everyone can sleep a little more soundly at night," he says quietly to me without ceasing the rhythmic movement of his hand. 

"It's a big relief knowing that they can't stop worrying about their loved ones being snatched, or that they won't wake in the night with a gun to their head. I know I can't possibly understand what you're going through, but maybe that little bit of positivity can help brighten your thoughts", was his attempt of piercing the guilt that encased me like Power Armor. The attempt ultimately failed, for his words evoked self-hatred to blossom instead of somber acceptance. 

"But I'm so pathetic! Everyone else has spent decades learning how to survive here. I've spent less than a year in this place and I get my damn foot b-blown off. Robert wouldn't have let something so idiotic happen to him..... God, w-why wasn't I holding him instead of Robert? _I_ should have been shot by Kellogg", was my agonized reply.

I felt Nick swiftly pull back from the embrace and place his hands on my shoulders. He stated with a serious look in his eyes, "Andie, don't you _ever_ think like that again. I understand where you're coming from, believe me, but you can't change what's happened. No matter how much you want to". 

He breathed a heavy sigh, and he used a gentle thumb to clear the tears from my cheek. "I'm gonna be straight with ya. It took me a _long_ time to come to terms with what happened to Jenny. I'm not saying I don't still miss her, but I realized that I have to move on, that I have to keep going. It's perfectly fine to feel down on life, but you can't stay like that forever. They would probably want to see you trying to live your life, ya know?", he says with a half-hearted smile.

My mind feels more at ease at his last string of words. I've gained control over my crying, and as I wipe the tears from my face, I pose a question: "Now why didn't Valentine's Counseling Agency come pay me a visit sooner?". "W-well, uh..." He replies with a surprising stutter and a downward tilt of his head.

His yellow eyes were hidden from sight when I asked, "Nick? What's wrong?". I see his metal fingers twitch, and he's most likely itching for a cigarette to roll between them. He lets out a heavy sigh before saying, "Well, after I reached Diamond City with you that night, I found Doctor Sun as soon as I could. But when he helped me lay you down on his operating table, you looked just like... when she was found...". 

It takes me a few seconds to understand what he was referring to, and I let out a poignant, "Oh", when it dawned upon me. "Yeah, and it hit me pretty hard. I was worried you were going to die because of me. Even when I heard when you'd waken up living and breathing, I still hated myself for letting it have happened to you. My leg would have been more repairable than yours", he say while his hand lays upon his thigh.

"But tonight, seeing you entangled in your guilt and regrets, I realized I wasn't thinking straight. I was only thinking of myself. I'm sorry for not being there for you. I promise to be here to support you from now on", he proclaims, his arms pulling me back into another embrace.

My eyelids begin to droop, and my whisper is muffled in his shoulder as I say, "Thank you, Nick".

"I have a sneaking suspicion that you're ready to nod off any minute now", Nick says with a chuckle. He makes sure not to move my leg too much as he gently lays my back against the bed. "Get some sleep, kid. I'll be right here if ya need me", he assures me as I drift off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine Nick having a lot more strength than he lets on, having the ability to smash bones like wood. Also, I put an absurd amount of time into pondering the physical effects of head injuries. Some stuff could probably come across as unrealistic, but I try to draw out moments because even if they occur so quickly, there can be a multitude of details to include. So one minute of time could be spread across five sentences. I will probably write longer chapters in the future, and I plan to come out with a second chapter in two weeks or less.


End file.
